The Canadian auto industry could potentially reach a final sales tally of 2 million new cars by the end of 2017 — a milestone that has not yet been achieved in the history of Canada, according to Brian Murphy, Vice President of Research and Editorial at Canadian Black Book.

Murphy says automakers sold a total of 1,953,008 new vehicles in the country in 2016, and this year the industry is missing a little over 243,000 units to reach the 2 million target. Some experts believe the possibility of reaching such a milestone is very real when considering the number of vehicles that are expected to be sold in November and December.

“At this point in the year, and given past sales performance, I think it is more than lined up to hit the mark,” said Murphy. “For the last five years, new car sales for November and December have been an average of around 263,000 units. So, if the industry performance is in fact at that level, we will exceed two million by about 20,000 units.”

In reality, the average sales total for November and December over the last ten years was just under 243,000 units, which implies that the industry could miss the 2 million mark by 500 vehicles. However, aside from 2008-2011, data shows that sales results have been well over 243,000 units.

“If the current sales pace holds, which has sales up around six per cent, the industry will hit around 2,062,000 easily passing the big mark, with lots of room to spare,” said Murphy.